Slow Internet Coonection in Mint 7 Gloria

[Husse]

It's not slow - you've got more than I have (I've got 8 MBps)
If it was a wifi connection I have a simple remedy ready for you
I have the solution below in my notes, but how efficient it is I don't know
It is however easy to revert - just delete what you added

Code: Select all

gksu gedit /etc/rc.local

Add

Code: Select all

echo 256960 > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
echo 256960 > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
echo 256960 > /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default
echo 256960 > /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max

echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_timestamps
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_sack
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling

If this does not help we need to know more about your hardware
Open a terminal and run lspci -vvnn
Look up the section for the network card and post it (Only that section please)

[Muzer]

Make sure you add those lines before "exit 0".

[DrHu]

Hi When first I installed My Mint 7 my Internet was nice and smooth and fast ( I have a Virgin Media 20Meg Wired Connection Via a D-Link DSL Cable Router )

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ss-607242/

• Go to the router and find the DNS servers it uses (for me it was 68.94.156.1, 151.164.8.201 if you are in the St. Louis area). For NetworkManager, go to edit settings and set the DNS server for the access point as these two. Problem solved.

post 7
-- could be the issue, router interaction with network manager, settings !

Instead of being blinded by specs/speedtests
Why not just do the practical test
--put a stopwatch or start an OS time before the download to test the actual download speed

• Read from server source
  Open file for transfer
  transfer file
  Close server source, file download completed..

If you test it that way and say Linux is being slower than windows by x-seconds, it will be a more reasonable metric (statistic)..
--but if the Mint is 64bit and the windows is 32bit OS,you will not be doing a fair comparison, so the hardware:software context is still needed!. Also depends on how you download, which browser software you are using, and if you use any browser accelerator applications ?
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/download- ... tools.html

Not that I think Linux Mint will beat Windows OS all the time, I just need to see legitimate stats..

[Husse]

but its not about how fast a file downloads etc etc ....its about why when using linux ( any linux any browser) my Internet is slower and is sluggish ,

Well you talked about speed and that's one part of the experience
What you seem to be talking about is response time, the time it takes between a click and when something starts to happen
If that's the case you may have a problem with name resolution
To examine that you could ping an IP address in both Windows and Mint and see if it differs (much) in response time
We can give you advice depending on what you find

[DrHu]

but its not about how fast a file downloads etc etc ....its about why when using linux ( any linux any browser) my Internet is slower and is sluggish , when im using windows i get no slowness and no sluggishness i just want to know why this would be and how ( if i can) make is faster

its about why when using linux ( any linux any browser) my Internet is ...
In my mind faster means speedier; more speedy..

OK, so why no context yet!..
-- software; hardware setups (Linux/Windows)

It will always be a matter of the hardware/software settings for each OS, and whether or not they are being treated equally
--the only way to conclude if a fair comparison is being made

• In Linux, which browser, how are the settings arranged; browser cache size?
• In Linux, hardware, how is the network setup
• In windows, which browser, how are the settings arranged; browser cache size?
• In windows, hardware, how is the network setup
• Do both Linux and windows get the same connection path to the Internet, or must Linux use the windows connection, in some manner

Is the network device natively supported in Linux, or must it use a windows driver, eg ndiswrapper or does it have poor support in Linux ?

In terminal, check

• inxi -F
  --short list of all hardware
  inxi -N
  --network card only
  inxi -h
  --help options for inxi command

Hi When first I installed My Mint 7 my Internet was nice and smooth and fast ( I have a Virgin Media 20Meg Wired Connection Via a D-Link DSL Cable Router )....i have a dual boot set up ,

..a D-Link DSL Cable Router
Context: Model numbers always help; which dlink router model for example ?
--not that I particularly want to start looking up everything, but that is always the place to start when looking at the problem; is the physical setup OK or not ?

And if as you say, it got worse (for Linux) from that first installation, what ,might have changed, which updates were done ?
--you can run mint menu>System>Control center>System>Computer janitor; and see what might have been uninstalled and able to be removed
--you might also install bleachbit, and clean up web cache/ history, /tmp ,/home/..thumbnails and various other debris
--you might run mintupdate or sudo apt-get update, in the terminal, to get any system (OS) updates needed for the applications (eg, Gnome network manager ) or system

In terminal, check

• apt search bleachbit
  i bleachbit - delete unnecessary files from the system

[theevilone6620]

I have been dealing with this same issue ever since I installed Mint on my laptop. And now to make matters even worse, i have converted my girl to Mint and our internet connection speed is even worse now with both systems on the network running Linux.

I love Mint but the one thing I can't stand about it is having a slow internet connection. I have a cable modem hooked into a Linksys WRT542 router. Both of my laptops are running wireless cards. Mine is a Broadcom BCM 4322. My internet speed is like half that of what it was when I was running windows. This is really frustrating, sometimes it takes a simple webpage forever to load.

I am puzzled too my friend and have not been able to find the answer to this mystery. It has to have something to do with Linux as my speeds, like yours are fine on Windows, but as soon as I load a Linux OS the speed is half that or less sometimes. I've searched high and low for an explanation and solution to this problem but cannot find it anywhere.

I guess another one of the drawbacks of using Linux is a slow net connection and not being able to solve the problem. Is it drivers? Well since I only have one option for my particular wifi card I'll never know. However, I feel it is unlikely seeing as the other laptop on my network suffers the same issue and it has a different card in it. I believe it has something to do with the kernel or just Linux in general as I've used a few different Linux distros and the issue is there in all of them.

However, if anyone finds a solution please let me know.

[Husse]

It is a mystery - I have the same or possibly slightly better speed (in all respects) on Mint than on Windows also with wireless (bcm4312) but I very occasionally loose the connection while Windows still works (happens maybe once a fortnight)
I would think it has to do with how your system cooperates with the router
This is however something I feel I would prefer hands on to solve - lots of experiments to do, not all of them coming to mind until I sit there and play
This must be thought of in two steps
The connection "internally" - between computer and router and the connection externally from router out into the world
For "internally" and wifi I have a solution for at least some cards

[ibm450]

This seems to be a common problem with Linux and not so with windows....why....god knows...and it’s one of reasons that, I can say with confidence, that stops so many people converting over to Linux full time.

my browsing speeds are also so much snappier in win 7 on my wireless nextg usb modem(s) (sierra and 626) then mint / ubuntu.

i just hope that these issues are HALF resolved when 9.10 / mint 8 / chromeOS comes out, if not, and im not starting ANY geek wars here, im sorry but i may just convert back to windows full time .

like i said, im not trying to start any GEEK wars here or put down Linux in general, but in 5 people that ive got to install Linux, 3 out of 5 have gone back to windows due to slow net problems and truck loads of network issues that have caused so many nightmares that it has put them off Linux for a long while.

im not here to put Linux down what so ever, so please don’t slag me down here, but it has become embarrassing to me when i try to convince my mates to convert over that they come back and slag Linux down so much in areas of poor net connectivity and basically trying to get certain hardware to work.

So come on 9.10, please resolve some issues.

[theevilone6620]

Just got done trying to fix my slow net connection with changing the MTU as well as changing the DNS in network manager, but noticed that the correct DNS were already in the text file so there really is no point right?? Im assuming getting the DNS addresses off the router's info page is right>?

Anyways, really weird before changing MTU to 1492 I was getting consistent speeds of only 3mbps on a 12 Mbps connection. After changing it now I get varying speeds from the same 2 or 3 Mbps to around only 4 or 5 which is better but still not there. I was getting speeds over 12Mbps in windows when Im only paying for a 12Mbps connection.

Here is the output of lspci if this helps at all
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 9602
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3)
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3a)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Link Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS780M/RS780MN [Radeon HD 3200 Graphics]
01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller
08:00.0 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. SD/MMC Host Controller
08:00.2 SD Host controller: JMicron Technologies, Inc. Standard SD Host Controller
08:00.3 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. MS Host Controller
08:00.4 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. xD Host Controller
09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
0a:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

and lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard Wireless (Bluetooth + WLAN) Interface [Integrated Module]
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:09b8 Logitech, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c404 Logitech, Inc. TrackMan Wheel
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

If I havent said already Im using a Broadcom BCM 4322 chipset with the wl driver.

[phil]

I don't know if this information will help but it might. I also notice that internet is much faster on Windows than Mint. But along with the speed difference i also notice that time-out occurs in a short time on Windows XP, a couple of seconds, and a very long time, up to several minutes, on Mint thus not bogging the system down waiting for a dns lookup that is slow. My tests were done with both systems running on the same DSL modem/router, a Zoom X5.

My internet speeds are very slow normally compared to yours I am sure due to my remote connection. I have also done simultaneous data transfer speed and ping tests. The data transfer remains more or less constant but ping varies some times to 100% packet loss.
The problem is much less noticeable on Windows.

Any ideas

[ghostgrrl]

This seems to be a common problem with Linux and not so with windows....why....god knows...and it’s one of reasons that, I can say with confidence, that stops so many people converting over to Linux full time.

...in 5 people that ive got to install Linux, 3 out of 5 have gone back to windows due to slow net problems and truck loads of network issues that have caused so many nightmares that it has put them off Linux for a long while.

...it has become embarrassing to me when i try to convince my mates to convert over that they come back and slag Linux down so much in areas of poor net connectivity and basically trying to get certain hardware to work.

I have to agree. I just finished touting the merits of my new, 2-week old Linux Mint 7 install to my sister, telling her how my laptop now gets blazing Internet speeds unheard of in WinVista, so she begged me to install Mint on her laptop. I did, and now she's back to dialup speed.

Here's the weird thing: When I tried out both her Vista Internet speed and her Mint Internet speed at my house, both were lightning fast. Then she takes the laptop home and plugs it in, only to discover her Mint install is between 32-42% --- crawling slow. She booted into Vista and it was zipping right along.

So here we have the same hardware and software setup, only on one Internet connection it's perfectly fast and on another there are issues on one OS and not the other. If it were merely her cable modem or router, it should be slow on both, shouldn't it?

If anyone has any solutions for this (newbie-flavored), please let us know.

[phil]

Did not mention it in my previous posting but I have three computers set up dual booting Mint and Windows XP. They all have the same problem with Mint being slower on the internet..

Another discovery, I think, is that if I reset my modem/router, the problem seems to go away temporarily. Something seems to be locking up traffic. I lose my ability in Mint to ping my gateway. I have never had this problem with Windows. I have suspected my router/modem but can't find anything wrong with it.

Is there a setting for the time-out interval for DNS look-up in Linux? I have thought that if there was I would shorten it and see what effect that had.. I Googled but could not find anything helpful.

[Husse]

These latest posts have pin pointed the problem to be something with certain routers and Mint - if routers were involved in all cases
On a sidenote - never connect directly to the internet, always have a router or a modem with hardware firewall for your own protection
As I think I stated above I have faster internet in Mint than in XP and about the same as in Vista - all the time - so it's not that Mint is slow in itself
I'm beginning to see what it might be (routing tables in the router or similar)
I have to ask the team about this because I'm not sure how to proceed

[miket]

Hi !

Ok, no one has actually said how they are connecting to their router, via ethernet or wifi ?
If via wifi then go to ethernet, wifi is notoriously slow, ethernet is 100mb capable or more, do you see a difference, if so then stick with ethernet cable!

The other thing is IPv6, I have seen this confuse the hell out of some (mainly cheap! (Belkin/Linksys/Dlink)) routers which gives the end result of slow internet access.
Does your router support IPv6 ? If not then I suggest you switch it off under Linux Mint, there is a posting somewhere in this forum telling you how to do it.

Windows doesn't currently support IPv6, only IPv4 thus this problem doesn't raise it's ugly head when using a windows machine on the same network.

The other thing to remember is that some ISP's are using compression techniques to get the higher throughput, they install the necessary client onto your windows
PC when you insert their CD to setup the initial internet connection, this compression is not supported (currently) in Linux as they don't supply the necessary
software client thus Linux will seem slower on internet usage, there's currently nothing you can do about this.

Let us know how you all get on if you try the IPv6 change!

MikeT.

[emorrp1]

This is the tutorial recommended for ipv6 change (installs a newer kernel): http://www.ubuntu-inside.me/2009/04/how ... aunty.html

[exploder]

Just throwing in a few tweaks I have found. I turn off two settings in Firefox to improve speed. I turn off:

Tell me if the site I am visiting is a suspected attack site.

Tell me if the site I am visiting is a suspected forgery.

This tip seems to help too.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?opti ... ic=61626.0

I think the problems people are experiencing are related to Firefox and how it is built for Linux.

[phil]

More info: I am using ethernet. The problem with slowness effects both Thunderbird and Firefox. Downloads, once they are started do not seem to be effected. There were some slow DNS look-ups this morning, but Windows timed out very soon and Mint did not, just bogged down and locked up access to my gateway.

I am using Windows this morning because Mint is all but out of service. I will try disabling IPV6. Maybe that is the problem.

I am using the 2.6.28-15 generic kernel and it seems from what I read that it is necessary to have the 2.6.31 kernel to be able to effectively disable ipv6.

This afternoon I had some time and tried some of the above suggestions. They may help a little. Another I found suggested on other forums was lowering the default timeout of DNS in resolv.conf. I changed it from the default of 5 seconds to 1 second and that did help, but the problem still exists. Something is causing a blocking of my access to my gateway still. By going to WICD and disconnecting and then reconnecting the problem goes away for a short while.

[theevilone6620]

Exploder,
The problem is not with Firefox, and I am almost certain about this as I've used every browser possible while running Mint and they are all effected the same with terribly slow speeds.

Miket,
When I first read your post about the software that some ISP's are installing on you Windows box to utilize compression techniques I thought to myself that this indeed may be the culprit. However, after thinkning about this for awhile, I realized that the software you are referring to was only installed on one of my laptops during installation of my cable modem and so therefore that eliminates that altogether. I get great speeds on both of my laptops when using Windows both the one with the software you mentioned and the one without it.

Also, I have tried plugging my laptop into the router with the ethernet jack to see how my speed would be effected and believe it or not, this actually made things worse for me. Not by much, but there was definately a speed decrease while running Mint through my ethernet port of my router. I still havent tried hooking directly into the Modem to see whether or not the router is the culprit. I plan on doing this sometime tonight actually.

I do not know why I never considered trying that out but I always just thought it was Mint as Windows is not effected at all by slow speeds. It is still really puzzling as to why using ethernet wouldnt give me a speed increase but it truly does not.

If the problem is in fact the router as Husse stated in his post, does anyone have a list of routers that are not effected by this and a list of routers that are? Once we have figured out exactly were these terribly slow speeds are coming from and if it is in fact a router issue we should start a list of routers that are effected by this.

Husse,
Just out of curiosity what type of router are you using?

Man Ive searched high and low to figure this out and it seems like I never get anywhere. First I was convinced it was drivers, but once I installed Mint on 2 other laptops it made it clear that drivers werent the issue. Even haven installed Mint on 3 laptops total here at my house, I was still skeptical as to whether or not the problem may in fact be caused by lousy wifi support on linux based operating systems as Ive read so much about it on the internet. But the nail in the coffin had to be when I hooked up my laptop to the ethernet jack and just took the wifi thing out of the picture. To my surprise my speeds werent any better at all. And at sometimes seemed like they were worse than when using Wifi.

There definately is a issue with internet speeds here on Linux and it's definately not just Mint. I thought maybe it was just Ubuntu and its children OS's but although I have never successfully gotten any of my laptops set up using Wifi on another Linux OS, I have used them with ethernet connection and they too suffer from slow as all hell internet speeds.

I will keep you guys posted as to what happens when I take the router out of the picture and just hook directly into my cable modem. If anyone has any more advice please let me know.

One final thing I should add is that the problem is not from IPV6, I have heard alot of talk about this being the main reason for slow internet speeds but the simple fact is that if I am not mistaken which I am pretty sure I'm not, is that Mint7 and Jaunty are the only versions that have IPV6 on by default with no option of disabling it. If this is the truth then only these versions should be plagued by this issue. For me it does not matter like I said I have used plenty of versions of Linnux based OS and the problem is there with all that I have tried. If it was just IPV6 I should be able to just switch over to Mint 6 or 5 and be alright. Mint 5 I have not tried but the issue is still there in all its ugliness in Mint 6 as well as , Ubuntu jaunty, Kubuntu, OpenSuse 11, Fedora 11, Debian Lenny, Sabayon, Mandriva(whatever the newest version is).

So I can say with confidence its not IPV6.

[Husse]

I think we are getting a bit towards understanding this - but we need to know moore
IPv6 is indeed a candidate and the compression program in some Windows also, but not the solution
I use a Dlink modem-router that by now is at least 5 years old. I have upgraded the firmware though
DSL-504T
Again - remember this is a two step thing
1) From the equipment the ISP has* to the modem
2) From the modem/router to your computer
*this can be a variety of different equipment and in some cases you don't have a modem, but mostly you have some sort of "box"
I have 8 Mbit/s ADSL and the speed I find when I look in the configuration pages for DSL-504T is 8000 kbit/s
This also about what I get in normal use in my different computers - Win or Lin
Take a look in the config for your ADSL modem (if you have ADSL) and see what speed you get - it should not vary if you look at it from Windows or Linux - if it does you have a problem
The next step would be to use wireshark or some such to analyze traffic in Win and Lin
I think this is a problem of some hardware not liking Linux, but I can't be sure

[phil]

After modifying my resolv.conf to time out at 1 sec instead of 5 sec I see a considerable improvement in access to the internet, without any time-outs so far. I plan to modify resolve.conf on two other computers today. I cannot measure the actual traffic flow at this time, but I plan to get some software that will allow doing this.

One of my friends is a network guru and assisted me in operating a wireless internet service from Mexico for several years. I am going to try to enlist his help. He is an Ubuntu and Centos fan. He has noticed the slow downs and stalls but rarely goes on line with Windows so so far is unable to compare performance..

I am using an Zoom ASDL X5 modem/router series 0228 furnished by the telephone company. I am convinced that the slowness has nothing to do with the modem/router since Windows XP SP3+ which is dual booted on three computers attached to the modem/router do not have a problem. Two of my computers have Mint 7 XFCE and one Mint 6 XFCE on them. The problem exists on all three.

It has also occurred to me that our remote location aggravates the problem. We probably have less service bandwidth via under the sea fiber cable than most of the rest of you on the forum to your house. And I am referring to the entire Caribbean area as the service area. One meg is the maximum available. My typical rate is 280mbps down and 120mbps up. My typical ping to
US locations, for instance open DNS (208.67.222.222) is about 70 ms. Dig @208.67.222.222 is 115ms so if anything hangs up somewhere in between a timeout of 5 s becomes a big delay. Microsoft uses about a 1 sec time-out. I get much faster response with my ISP but I think his DNS may be intermittent in returning an answer. And TTL from my tests is very short.

More later.

phil